Agfa Graphics Announces New :Apogee Suite

March 20, 2008 -- Agfa Graphics announced today that it will demonstrate its new comprehensive suite of software solutions, :Apogee Publish, :Apogee Portal, :Apogee Prepress, and :Apogee Color at drupa, the international graphic communications trade fair in Düsseldorf, Germany, 29 May - 11 June.

:Apogee Suite solutions are designed to meet the needs of all stakeholders in the printing and publishing process, including print buyers, content owners, designers, prepress managers, and production coordinators. It integrates all content, proofing, output, connectivity and other integral elements through one comprehensive suite.

"Our new :Apogee Suite takes connectivity to a new level, with a highly functional integration that further improves overall management of the graphic communications process," said Bart De Pelsmaeker, Director, Agfa Graphics, Software Group. "The needs of our customers for software solutions are changing and it is important that we offer them solutions that are modular. In other words, the solutions serve the functional needs of a specific department or group inside a company, while at the same time, because they are modular, the solutions can be integrated together to form a logical total flow."

:Apogee Publish contains solutions focusing on all tasks from content management to page creation for print and web. It contains :Apogee Media which will also debut at drupa. :Apogee Media is tailored to the needs of content creators and brand owners, as well as departments at print service providers and design agencies. Existing tools for word processing and desktop publishing are leveraged into a more automated integrated workflow with a built-in content management solution. This collaborative production platform introduces editorial and layout activities that integrate easily with prepress environments such as :Apogee Portal and :Apogee Prepress. :Apogee Publish also contains :Apogee Secuseal which provides dedicated design and verification tools to generate complex security designs and patterns that make imitations recognizable and traceable.

:Apogee Portal (formerly :Delano) strengthens the communication and collaboration between printers and their customers. It allows participants throughout the graphic communications process to collaborate on projects and tasks. This results in higher productivity, a shorter number of steps before printing, and reduced costs of reworks and errors. It includes :Apogee WebApproval for file and proof retrieval, :Apogee StreamProof for integrated, fast, high resolution softproofing and :Apogee Project Manager for more advanced functionality and online management of print projects.

:Apogee Prepress (formerly :ApogeeX) provides a full JDF-enabled prepress production hub, allowing everyone in the production environment to manage and control all prepress processes. The increased level of automation gives production environments the ability to accomplish more functions with fewer people. It offers complete connectivity to Agfa's set of CtP engines, as well as innovative technologies such as :Apogee InkSave for increased ink efficiency and cost savings, and a new component called :Apogee Platemaker for continuous plate production.

:Apogee Color seamlessly integrates end-to-end quality and color management solutions into the :Apogee Suite solutions. :Apogee Color, including :ColorTune and :SherpaProof, produces predictable soft and hard copy proofs at critical points in the production cycle. It makes sure that everyone in the communication process looks at the same proof wherever they are.